CD quality DIY digital effects

[bleubleu]

Hi!

I am a software engineer who happens to enjoy building stompboxes in my spare time.
I would like to give digital a try so I can use my programming skill program effects.
Are there any microcontroller (or development board) on the market fast enough that can :

* Sample an analog audio signal at CD quality (A/D 44khz)
* Process it (any effect I would program).
* Output an analog sound
* All of this in real time (or as close as possible).

I looked at the latest PICs and some ATMELs and that FV-1 thing and I dont believe there is such a device available right now.

Am I wrong ?

Mat

[iaresee]

Altera has a Cyclone II-based development starter kit called the DE1 board. Has nice A/D|D/A converters. Comes with all the software you need to get started programming your own DSP and other algorithms in dedicated hardware. All for a very reasonable $150 USD. Check it out. You're not writing software with this route, you're writing hardware (and maybe a little software if you mix a NIOS processor in there).  (Disclaimer: I work for them)

And if you can hang in there a little longer (and hope that it's not vapourware) Line6 has a ToneCore Developer Kit slated to be released anydaysoonlikeyesterdaynow. With an ESP of $199 USD. Could be the deal of the decade if the software is good. I've never used Freescale's Symphony IDE but they say it supports assembly and C.

[bleubleu]

Cool.

FPGA's look fun, but without a soft-processor loaded, they look extremely low-level to me (at least from a programmer standpoint).
That developer kit looks like a nice toy!

I will look into those deeper tomorrow. Thanks!

Mat

[flo]

An alternative:
Use a regular PC / laptop with a good quality audio interface and try to develop plugins with Steinberg's VST development SDK.
VST plugins are readily supported by all kinds of software and hosts. PCs will only get smaller and more powerfull in the future (see Asus EEE pc and microAXT formfactors, embedded options etc). It will not take long before a powerful PC is available in pocket / stompbox-like format.

[MetalGuy]

Use a regular PC / laptop with a good quality audio interface and try to develop plugins with Steinberg's VST development SDK.

IMHO what we need here is a simple DIY solution (something like the FV-1) but capable of doing for example 5-7 effects in a row (I hope the new DV-1 will be able to do that) with controllable parameters.
Working with PC and plugins is OK but that's another topic.
As far as DSPs are concerned for starters will be  enough to load one with already existing (free?)algorithms (don't forget several effects in a row!) just to get a taste of it.

[Ice-9]

I was interested in using the fv-1 for development until i realized that only 3 pots were possible for controls. A minimum of 4 would have been ok but 3 isn't enough to even make a proper flanger (although i guess it's flanger effect is prob v.good) i want more control. You mention the dv-1, is this from the same company but with more options ?